Moudud evicted from Gulshan residence

BNP standing committee member Moudud Ahmed was evicted from the residence at Gulshan Avenue in Dhaka where he has been staying for more than three decades.

Rajdhani Unnayan Kartripakkha (Rajuk) started the eviction drive at the house this noon and took its control after the former law minister lost a long legal battle over the ownership of the residence, worth over Tk 300 crore.

The eviction drive came three days after the Supreme Court verdict that ordered the authorities to mutate the Gulshan land and residence.

“Pursuant to the highest court’s verdict, we are vacating the house and taking control of it,” Waliur Rahman, zonal director of Rajuk, told The Daily Star. The house is on one bigha and 13 katha lands, the Rajuk official said.

Terming the drive "unlawful and unethical", Moudud told The Daily Star that they have started the drive at his house without any prior notice.

"This is not a government property, still the government is desperate to evict me from my house," he said, adding that there is no court order for the eviction drive.

Before starting the drive, a huge number of law enforcers were deployed around the house. Water cannon, prison van and bulldozer were seen parked outside the residence. Two trucks were also there to carry the goods of the house. Rajuk officials were present during the whole drive.

Around 2:45pm, labours started loading the trucks with goods but none of the family members of Moudud was seen during the drive. When the drive started around 12:30pm, Moudud was in the court. He reached there at 3:00pm.

An example of vengeance: Moudud

Pointing finger to the Rajuk officials, aggrieved Moudud said, "It is a sign that there is no rule of law in the country."

Then talking to the newsmen, he said, “It is an example of vengeance. The court did not say anything about eviction and Rajuk also did not serve me any notice to leave the house. As I do politics of opposition party, I was evicted from the house. If it is a ruling party man, situation would be different.”

The household goods of the former law minister. Photo: Star/ Palash Khan

When asked about his next move, the former minister said, "I have no other option except lying on the street. I do not know where my furniture’s will be taken off."

“Eviction of Moudud from his house is tantamount to a militant behaviour. Without any notice, an organiser of the liberation war, language movement hero and a senior lawyer was evicted from his house. I have no word to condemn such behaviour,” Fakhrul told reporters.

Photo: Collected

Earlier at 4:00pm, BNP standing committee member Khandakar Mosharraf Hossain visited the spot. He told journalists, “We do not know about the legal aspects. We know that he was there and he was ousted from there.”

On Sunday, the apex court dismissed three petitions filed seeking review of its verdict scrapping a High Court judgment that ordered the authorities to mutate the Gulshan land and residence.

The Anti-Corruption Commission (ACC) on December 17, 2013, lodged a case with Gulshan Police Station against Moudud and his brother Monzur on the charge of grabbing the "abandoned public land".

According to the case statement, Moudud and his brother grabbed the land of around one bigha and 13 kathas between 1978 and 2006.

The land was enlisted as the government's abandoned land in 1972 after Pakistani couple Mohammad Ehsan and Inge Maria Flatz left the country before 1972.

Ehsan received the possession of the land in 1961 from now-defunct DIT [now Rajuk]. The land was transferred to Flatz in 1965.

Moudud falsely showed that Flatz issued a power of attorney in favour of him on August 2, 1973.

Moudud grabbed the land and its establishment, and started living there showing him as a tenant of Flatz. But the ACC investigation found no record that says she visited Bangladesh after the independence of the country.